


A bunch of broken souls

by akitcougar



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ace Sam, Drabbles, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Queer Avengers, Soulmate AU, ace bucky, aka I wanted to write romance but also make it mildly depressing, broken soulmates AU, give me suggestions, inspired by a tumblr post tbh, pan Bucky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-07-15 17:11:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7231429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akitcougar/pseuds/akitcougar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A soulmates AU of Avengers, where everything is depressing and it's all kinda fucked up. One of those AUs where the name of the person who is your soulmate appears on your wrist roughly around puberty. Mostly just short drabbles as I think of them. If you want something more in depth, ask and I'll start working on the full story.</p><p>Based on <a href="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/da/cc/bd/daccbd8cb40bf5be55a0a16f7bc1d90c.jpg">this tumblr writing prompt</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Only for a moment (Steve/Peggy)

It started off awkwardly, as a lot of these relationships go. She outranked him, and he didn’t know how to approach girls. Bucky’s carefree attitude towards relationships hadn’t helped with that.

Steve eventually figured out that just treating Peggy like another person was enough to get to know her.

From there, they fell in love.

Steve’s unwavering sense of fairness fueled Peggy’s desire for equality. Peggy kept Steve moving forward when the loss of Bucky threatened everything the two of them had worked for.

They weren’t perfect people, but their relationship was, if only for a little while. They were two halves of the same whole, made just for each other.

* * *

He promised to take her dancing.

“Peggy, I-”

There was only the sounds of a crash.

* * *

She wore his name as a badge of honor.

_ He was mine, if only for a little while. What I had was beautiful. _

She threw herself into her work, preserving Steve’s legacy by creating SHIELD. She devoted her life to proving that Captain America didn’t die in vain.

* * *

They found each other, decades later. He was still the young soldier, full of life and potential. She was on her last bed, barely able to stand. She still loved him, and he still loved her, after all these years apart.

They were still perfect for each other. They were two halves, shattered and broken, with new fragments attached to each other as they’d had to move on, but they still formed one whole. 

He offered her one last dance, to make up for missing the date they’d planned.


	2. War gets in the way (Sam/Bucky)

He told everyone it was a girl named Samantha, but that she just went by Sam. The names only show what they go by, after all. 

“Yeah, she’s probably prettier than your Peggy, Steve,” he would say to his best friend, even though he knew he really didn’t care about what this Sam would look like. That wasn’t what mattered to him.

Then his war got in the way.

* * *

He told everyone it was a girl named Rebecca, but that she just went by Bucky. The names only show what they go by, after all. She probably liked to be different than all the Beckies of the world.

He didn’t talk about how he watched everyone, not just the girls, wondering who this Bucky really was.

Then his war got in the way.

* * *

“Sam, meet Bucky. Bucky, Sam,” Steve said, before he left to find a getaway car.

Sam and Bucky stared at each other before their eyes simultaneously flicked to the names on their arms.

* * *

Neither were what the other expected. 

Bucky had had flings with girls and boys in the past, dates that never mattered to him. He didn’t connect with these people, and he could leave when they wanted it to be something more.

Sam had kept to himself while in the army. Afterwards, there were too many broken souls to heal for him to care about finding his soulmate.

Neither had tried to make a serious relationship. Their wars got in the way.

Sam approached Bucky like he was another broken soul who just needed to talk. He wasn’t sure of any other way to talk to someone who needed help the way he and Bucky did.

* * *

They were both broken. Their wars had left irreparable scars.

They muddled along, did the best they could to heal each other.

Neither showed their friends the names on their arms. Bucky wore his beaten brown jacket. Sam wore a watch. No one knew except Steve, who didn’t think it was his place to talk about it, not with his own broken soulmate story.

* * *

Sam made pancakes in the mornings, before he would act as Bucky’s therapist.

Bucky fell in love with the man who put blueberries in a smiley face before flipping the pancake and cared enough to make extra for Bucky to eat when sleep was impossible.

* * *

Bucky opened up to Sam. It took a long time for him to feel comfortable with another person knowing everything he remembered. He talked about his childhood, his sleepless nights, everything that came to mind.

Sam fell in love with the man who trusted him like that.

* * *

It wasn’t perfect, the way fairy tales said.

But it was enough for them.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam/Bucky is a favorite ship of mine, so it's a thought on how being queer is seen in this AU. Really, most of the reason I wrote the whole thing was to write a domestic!Avengers story. Sam cooks blueberry pancakes with smiley faces because he can.


	3. Ghost (Natasha)

She had no name on her wrist. For as long as she could remember, there had never been a name.

She didn’t know if she had been born without one or if it had been removed by the Red Room. It didn’t matter anymore.

It was easy enough to write on a fake name for a mission, make it look like the real thing. After all, there were lots of people who would never meet their soulmate. No one would ask where hers was.

It was hard to wash off a new name every day, to wonder if someone out there had your name written on their wrist.

She was SHIELD’s own pet ghost, their spider with no ties and no chance to form a bond. She was useful. The red in her ledger grew longer with every mission.

Sometimes she wrote the mark’s name on her wrist, pretended to be their unmet soulmate while planning to interrogate them or kill them or whatever else SHIELD wanted her to do. It was nice to pretend that someone else wanted her for a little while.


	4. Wrong Wrist (Tony)

He wears a watch on the wrong wrist now.

He still gets tripped up when checking the time, but usually he can check his phone. Or ask FRIDAY. Or any number of things that almost brings her name to his lips.

He catches himself. It wouldn’t do to have Tony fucking Stark slip up at a press conference by mentioning her.

He lives at the Avengers facility now, when he’s not supervising other SHIELD projects. The others look at him with sympathy in their eyes. Or apathy. Or they don’t even see him anymore, after so many arguments and fights.

He misses her, even after everything. When their relationship was good, it had been really good.

But that was the problem. It wasn’t good often enough.

He fights with everyone, true, but the fights were always so much worse with her. His safety, the direction of Stark Industries or SHIELD, what he wanted out of their relationship. She never agreed, but these were too important to both of them.

He would never be the perfect husband she wanted. She would never be the understanding woman he wanted.

They’d split. It wasn’t even a divorce, since they hadn’t gotten married.

He threw himself into his work at SHIELD, and he covered up her name on his wrist.

She’d already removed his name from her wrist and moved on.

He still couldn’t get himself to remove hers.


End file.
